Search

In the cold, West Michigan winter of 2009, the Women and Gender Studies program at Grand Valley State University introduced its students to the wonderful and intriguing world of Triota. Triota, also known as Iota Iota Iota (try saying that three times fast!) is the Women and Gender Studies National Honors Society that offers students the chance to excel in the areas of WGS by encouraging its members to strive for excellence in academics, giving back to the community through feminist activism and social advocacy, and to spark creativity in ways to engage the campus and community in the WGS program.

Since the birth of Triota on our campus there have been some extremely kick ass student initiated programs to come about, which of course, could not be done without the guidance of our awesome and supportive faculty and staff. With all of that being said, I thought it would be cool to highlight students and the programs they have developed in different Campus Feministing blog posts.

Last week Friday, I was given the opportunity to sit down with Lena Drake, a Creative Writing and WGS major at GVSU, Editor in Chief of the magazine Breadcrumb Scabs (look for more about Breadcrumb Scabs in future posts!) and student researcher extraordinaire. GET THIS: This past summer, she was flown out to Las Vegas through a student scholarship program to a sex worker conference. After her trip, she turned her experiences into pieces of poetry. Lena is also currently researching the social paradigms behind cosmetic surgery with a faculty member. On top of that badass resume, Lena is the mastermind behind the Triota Student Lecture Series at GVSU, the topic that will be discussed in this weeks’ blog post.

The first question I had for Lena, as I am beyond intrigued by her creative, academic-minded thought process, was how she came up with the idea for Triota Student Lecture Series.

“The idea for the Triota Student Lecture Series was a very random occurrence! I was having a spaghetti dinner with my partner, Corey Cooper, one night and we were having a discussion about some of our many feminist ideas and how much we’d like to do speeches and/or papers on these topics at GVSU. We did some more brainstorming on how this could happen, and at the next Triota meeting, I presented the idea that rather than only having outside speakers, we should get students from GVSU to discuss their own topics of feminist interest in front of a crowd of their peers.

While outside speakers are awesome, I think that giving the students the opportunity to speak in front of a crowd of their peers is extremely beneficial. It makes speaking about topics of interest and areas of research more accessible to the general student population. It’s all about listening to people who are just like them in the sense that they are students typically in the same age range. I think it’s a good break from the normal famous speaker, or someone they have never even heard of, or even the same old routine of listening to professors lecture in a classroom setting. It’s refreshing because they get to witness real enthusiasm from their peers, and I believe that enthusiasm demonstrated from others is a great tool for sparking personal inspiration.”

It is safe to say that not all feminists are WGS majors, and being that, I was curious to know what Lena believed was the ideal type of student to present at Triota Student Lectures Series

“One of my main goals for the Triota Student Lecture Series was to help people understand that feminism doesn’t necessarily have to be what they expect: The WGS Major speaking strictly about areas in the field of WGS, and doing it in front of a crowd of WGS students, faculty, and staff. For example, two out of the four presenters in our first lecture series were not WGS Majors and didn’t have any intentions on being one, YET they still had interests that really applied to feminist issues. There are many diverse topics in the Triota Student Lecture Series and it helps students realize that topics they are interested in actually do relate to feminism and that these topics do extend farther women vs. men, race, class, gender, environment, etc. There are so many areas of study that are applicable to feminism.”

Since I was unable to attend the first lecture series, I asked Lena to give an example of a lecture given by a non-WGS major.

“For example, my partner is a psychology major interested in learning about cognition and the way that people learn. The topic highlighted was the theory of Need for Cognition, which basically measures not how smart someone is, but the measure of how interested someone is in learning new things. They may not be the so-called smartest person, but they may have an interested in constantly learning, concentrating, and questioning. Using this theory, Corey saw connections between feminism and how important it is to question things. Society can basically tell you what to do and then you have to follow the mainstream whether it is good or not, so what was examined was how to foster and encourage young people to question how the main stream media tries to eliminate the need for cognition and the desire to question. While Need For Cognition is not strictly a WGS theory, it is clearly connected to feminism.”

Being that the Triota Student Lecture Series is new and still developing, I asked Lena what she hoped for in the program’s future.

“I really want to see all types of students, WGS and Non, making connections between their interests and feminism. Beyond that, it would be very cool to have people present art and lecture about its feminist symbolism, or feminism tied into creative writing. It would also be awesome o see more academic, empirical studies… basically we strive for diversity in our topics.”

To wrap things up, I wanted to know when the next Triota Student Lecture Series was so I could highlight some of the research in Campus Feministing. It turns out that at the end of this semester, once students get a chance to wrap up their research and research proposals, we can expect another lecture series! I, personally, cannot wait and hope I can share some of the feminist research that I will be working on this semester… and hopefully you, the readers, can too! Again, comments and discussion are welcomed and encouraged!

PS- My apologies to Lena and GVSU WGS Department for taking a while to get this blog published! I am basically useless when I’m sick with a cold 😉 !

Hello Everyone! My name is Nicole and I am a senior at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan double majoring in Psychology and Women and Gender Studies. My main areas of interest and activism revolve around issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, youth empowerment, women’s mental health, feminist volunteerism, and equal access to education.
Aside from being a full-time student, I am a feminist activist involved in a variety of groups on my campus and in my community. My true passion in life has always been working with and learning from those in need. Some of the organizations I am or have been involved in include:
- Triota, Women and Gender Studies National Honors Society
- Grand Valley State University's Women's Center
- Phi Sigma Sigma Women's Fraternity
- GVSU Greek Allies and Advocates
- YWCA West Central Michigan
- Girls Incorporated
- Children's Advocacy Center of Ottawa County
- Girl Scouts of America
- Mystic Lake YMCA Camp
- Big Brothers, Big Sisters
- I am also employed part-time Safe Haven Ministries, which "offers confidential emergency shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence; support groups, individual counseling, and advocacy for women and children who do not require shelter; and prevention and outreach programs for the entire community." - safehavenministries.org. I have to add that I absolutely LOVE my job… it doesn’t even seem like work! I am so lucky to have the chance to regularly interact with our residents. Its invaluable experience!
I am so excited to have the opportunity to be a part of Feministing Campus! It is essential for us young feminists to connect and network with one another and this is honestly the perfect place for us to bring about awareness and learn from one another! With that being said, please feel free to comment on my posts or ask questions at anytime. I am always open to ideas and suggestions! Take care and enjoy!

Ed.note: This post is part of a series we’re running this month as part of a media partnership with the Association of Women in Development (AWID) to cover their semi-annual Forum. The 2016 Forum took place earlier this month in Brazil and explored diverse perspectives on “Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice” with a focus on voices from the Global South.

Activist Flavia Dzodan said it best — “My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.”

Ed.note: This post is part of a series we’re running this month as part of a media partnership with the Association of Women in Development (AWID) to cover their semi-annual Forum. The 2016 Forum took place earlier ...

Search

We need your help!

Get Our Newsletter

New posts and Feministing news delivered to your inbox weekly!

Want to write for us?

All Feministing posts are written by the site’s collective of regular columnists and editors. Though we don’t currently accept guest submissions, we have an open platform Community site to which anyone can contribute. We often promote our favorite Community posts on the main site. And Community bloggers who consistently impress us may to be invited to become regular Feministing columnists..